


Trust, and the Betrayal Thereof

by henghost



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: F/F, Force Bondage, Light Dom/sub
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:08:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26282422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/henghost/pseuds/henghost
Summary: For class, Diana uses a paralysis spell on Akko. Akko likes it more than she thought she would.
Relationships: Diana Cavendish/Atsuko "Akko" Kagari
Comments: 6
Kudos: 147





	Trust, and the Betrayal Thereof

Diana muttered the words and Akko’s body went completely rigid. Now this was a peculiar feeling. Akko was filled with thrumming energy. Magic up and down her limbs, and when she strained against it she found that, yes, the spell was quite unbreakable. She was totally and utterly paralyzed. Diana grinned — a spell well cast.

All around them was the rattling sound of rain against the tall windows. A storm had been over Luna Nova for days now. All over campus people were beginning to forget what sunlight looked like. Black clouds hung low in the sky, bulging and pregnant and veined with yellow, and whereas many students reported a low mood due to the weather, Akko felt kinetic and unstoppable. There was so much energy in the air. A perfect way to start the autumn, she thought. Autumn, which was the season of witches.

Finnelan had begun the day’s lesson by instructing everyone to find a partner they trusted. “We’re getting into quite advanced witchcraft now, ladies,” she said. “Betrayal between partners at this stage could prove catastrophic.” Akko had eyed Diana, and Diana had eyed her back. 

This year, with the apocalypse delayed at least for the time being, and with their shared role in delaying it, the two had found more (and more and more and more) in common. By now, if a lesson called for partnering, there wasn’t any question who they would pick. A bystander might even call them friends, but that would of course be an inaccurate description: There was too much history between the two for them to be simple “friends.”

Akko had attempted the spell first, and failed. For all the strides she’d made, this was still perhaps a little above her paygrade. 

But Diana, on the other hand, with one flick of her wand had put Akko, quite literally, in her place. Finnelan had said that the subject might retain some control of their bodies if it was the caster’s first attempt, but this certainly was not Diana’s first attempt, not by a longshot. Akko couldn’t move a millimeter, although her face had gone crimson with trying.

“Don’t resist,” said Diana. “It will be more painful if you resist.”

Akko could still speak, but her tongue felt huge and leaden in her mouth. “How long,” she said, “do I have to stay stuck like this?”

“Well, as long as I want, really. Once the paralysis has set in only the original caster can undo it. For the moment you are entirely at my mercy, Akko. I could do whatever I wished with you. I won’t, of course — I wouldn’t betray your trust like that.”

“Oh I’m _so_ grateful.” (With her tongue in the state it was, though, it probably came out more like: “thsho grehtful”)

“I would hold my tongue if I were you. Maybe you will keep this in mind the next time you refuse to clean up after yourself, or insist on screaming in normal conversation.”

“You wouldn’t!”

“No. No, of course not. To do so would be unladylike, and whenever have you known me to anything but ladylike? I will, however, use this opportunity to fix this _vest_ of yours — don’t you own an _iron?_ — and, good Lord, your skirt as well!”

Diana smoothed down Akko’s clothes with her pale, slender hands, and a new burst of red splashed across her cheeks. When Diana was finished she swished her wand again and all the mana left Akko’s body, and she stumbled forward into Diana’s arms, only to rip away when she regained control of her legs. 

“Very well, you all,” said Finnelan. “Class is dismissed.”

#

A phantom stiffness stuck with Akko the rest of the day. Her gait stuttered as she went through the castle, and she couldn’t get rid of the ache in her chest. The sensation of Diana fixing her outfit also refused to leave. She hadn’t felt so humiliated since the first day of fourth grade when her mother had insisted on walking her to class. Diana often thought too highly of herself. She thought she _deserved_ the power, the power to keep people frozen, keep them indebted to her that way. Then again, perhaps she did deserve it…. 

They spoke at dinner and didn’t mention once what had transpired in Finnelan’s class. Why should they have?

Then at night, when the staticky rush of rain against the walls had lulled her to sleep, Akko had a dream. She dreamed of Diana dressed as a rogue from a Spaghetti Western, wielding a lasso and a revolver. Akko played the damsel in distress, clad in a frilly pink gown. Cowgirl Diana grabbed her by the hair and dragged her kicking and screaming out of the saloon, all the way across town, to the train tracks.

“Now you’re all mine,” said dream-Diana, and cackled and unfurled her lasso and wrapped it around Akko’s smooth wrists. Akko screamed and screamed.

“Why?” said Akko. “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Why, you ask?” said Diana as she tied Akko’s ankles and laid her lengthwise across the tracks. “There is nothing more beautiful than a pretty girl restrained.” More cackling

Akko lifted her head to watch the train chug toward her. It was unlike any train she’d seen before, made of a pulsing, glowing red, covered in enormous, highly detailed renderings of roses. Instead of steam it exhaled a sticky pink mist. Akko awoke a moment before it split her down the middle.

Surely it was Sucy’s doing, some experimental oneiric potion, but all the same she spent longer than ordinary in her morning shower….

#

At breakfast Akko finished her eggs and burnt-black bacon quickly and started in on Diana’s. She jabbed a fork into a slice of Diana’s grapefruit and swallowed it and smirked. Diana glared back knives. Another stolen slice, dripping bloody dew and sparkling in the morning light. Diana said, “Akko? Have I done something to upset you?”

“Hungry. Just hungry.”

“Hungry?”

“Yep.”

Their broom-riding class they held inside because of the lightning. They moved tables and chairs aside to make room for a little loop along the walls, and soon they were bouncing around the greatroom like flies with hats. Diana stuck close to Akko. This was something they’d been doing for a few weeks now, to prevent Akko, in case her (still amateurish) flying ability failed her, from falling all the way to the ground. 

Akko mostly occupied the time by swooping behind Diana and grabbing the shaft of her broom and sort of yanking it just a little, which never failed to make her squeal, which in turn never failed to make Akko giggle.

“Would you _stop?_ ” said Diana the third or fourth time she did it.

“You look cute when you’re scared.”

“Well, you look cute when you are _well behaved._ ”

(This statement nearly caused Akko to quit. Nearly.)

Then in their shared magical numerology class, Akko “accidentally” tipped Diana’s inkwell across her page. A thunderclap ricocheted through the classroom, and Diana’s face went stormy. In a voice low enough to not interrupt the lecture, Diana said, “Akko — what on earth has gotten _in_ to you today?”

“I’m sorry, Diana. I’ve just been feeling clumsy today. Sorry. I’ll buy you more ink.”

The final straw came a few hours later when the two were dashing through the pathway between two wings of the building. Their footsteps against the cobblestones echoed and echoed until finally the torrent of water drowned them out. Lightning crashed around them like cymbals. And when they were mere yards from the door Akko stuck her leg out just so, and Diana tumbled over herself, into the squishing mud, and screamed.

“Sorry!” yelled Akko.

Diana pulled herself from the mire, and Akko looked at her and stifled a laugh. Here was the richest, most intelligent witch in school covered with dirt and totally soaked. 

“Akko?”

“Yes?”

“Can I speak with you? Alone?”

“It was an accident, Diana, I—”

“Come with me.”

Diana dragged Akko through a corridor, up a flight of stairs, to the residential wing, and inside her mansion of a room, dripping all the while. Her roommates were nowhere to be seen. The candles flickered and bathed the walls in dancing shadows. 

“What is it?” said Akko with her back to a wall.

“I think you know _damn_ well what it is, Akko!”

And here Diana pulled her wand from her cloth belt and swished it and all at once Akko couldn’t move a muscle.

“Really, Diana” — her tongue now a dumbbell in her mouth — “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”

Diana stepped toward Akko until faces weren’t an inch apart, and just then a bolt of lightning lit the room and Akko saw all the lines of Diana’s face, lines which creased and turned and dipped to create the very picture of fury. “Do not lie to me. Don’t you dare. This is serious — deadly serious. You have been pestering me all day, don’t pretend you haven’t. What I would like to know, Akko, is why.”

“It’s just fun, isn’t it?”

“Fun? I am not here at the most prestigious magical academy in the western hemisphere to have ‘fun.’ I do not have time for your infantile games. I simply do _not!_ ”

Akko strained against the magical bindings. That same boundless energy rushed across her nerves and veins, slithered and shook through her ribs like a rattlesnake. This was a kind of intimacy. Diana could do anything she liked. She could slit Akko’s throat if she so wished. But she didn’t. She only paced across the impressive expanse of her room and muttered to herself and snuck glances at Akko who still was stuck in her living rigor mortis.

Finally got up close to her again and lifted her right hand and _smack!_ Just as soon as the sting registered the magic left her and she crumpled to the floor and rubbed her cheek. 

“Akko!” screamed Diana, sounding more afraid than angry. “I am so sorry. Oh, God, I don’t know what came over me!”

“It’s fine,” said Akko. “I deserved it. It’s fine.”

“No — no, please, let me take the pain away.” And she knelt down beside Akko and drew a sort of bow-shape in the air with her wand and a warm anesthesia replaced the pain, which hadn’t even been so bad to begin with.

“Really, Akko, I cannot apologize enough.”

“It’s okay. It didn’t even hurt that much, jeez.”

#

In her bed that night Akko tossed and turned and turned and tossed. She found herself wishing she had someone to hold her still, perfectly still. She couldn’t stop thinking about it, about the feeling of being under Diana’s total control. Why was it that when teachers told her to sit still it infuriated her, but when Diana _made_ her sit still, it made her feel — what did it make her feel? It wasn’t all pleasant, nor was it entirely _un_ pleasant. Something in between. Something she’d never felt before.

Lately her life had come to be defined by Diana. Always Diana was there, either in the flesh or in her mind. Diana, who wouldn’t look out of place in a dollhouse. Diana, who contained hidden passions (Akko had a handmark across her face to prove _that!_ ) and who knew what else.

Finally her head wore itself out and gave in to slumber. Her dream was too intense to remember.

#

The sun woke her up. The sun! Gray-black clouds still occupied the sky, but they had at last allowed a ray of light to peek through. The sight made Akko’s stomach wince. 

At breakfast they sat at the same table again, although a kind of iciness permeated their conversation. They couldn’t look directly at each other. This dynamic stuck around throughout the rest of the day. Gone was yesterday’s mischief. When, while writing at the same desk, their pinkies touched, it was as though more of that magic electricity had come between them. Something had changed with the smack….

After the school day Diana again asked to speak with Akko — alone, she stressed.

“Should I expect more, uh, ladylike behavior?” said Akko.

“No! No. I only want to, er, to ask you something.”

“Fine.”

They stepped behind the tall bookcase in Diana’s room and stood a foot apart and stared at each other wordlessly. 

Eventually Akko said, “So?”

“I wanted, well, to apologize again. I don’t know — I don’t know what I was thinking, and—”

“I already forgave you. What did you want to _ask_ me?”

“And I was thinking about why, you know, after the lights were out last night. I was thinking that it was only that I felt so _strong_ ly. Often I don’t feel particularly strongly about anything — anything except the study of magic, of course — but you really have the capacity to in _fur_ iate me, Akko.”

“Thanks.”

“Sorry, no, I don’t mean to insult you. But after some introspection, I have come to believe that this is the case because overall I feel quite a lot about you indeed. I think quite a lot about you, is what I mean. And my mother often told me that when your emotions reach a certain level of intensity it becomes difficult to tell them apart, or to determine what the primary cause of the emotional intensity is, and so—”

“Diana. Get to the point.”

“Yes, well, I think the point is that I have come to the conclusion that the primary cause of the emotions I have for you, er, is that, well, I lo—”

“Love!”

“No! No no no. That I like you, is what I mean. I have reached the startling conclusion that I think I really, you know, like you….”

Diana looked at her shoes and tried (and failed) to keep Akko from seeing her blush. Akko felt as though the reason the storm was dying down was because the rain and lightning and hammering thunder had found its way inside her chest. 

“Like me?”

“Yes, I suppose it’s a little embarrassing, but what I wanted to ask you, Akko, is do you feel the same way, er, about me?”

Now Akko’s face was burning as well. Diana was always better at articulating things than her. “Yes,” she said. “I think I do.”

“Oh! Great, well….”

“Can I kiss you?”

“You want to — to kiss me?”

“Actually, no, I want you to kiss me.”

“I’m not sure I am—”

“You should use that spell on me and then kiss me. That’s what I want.”

“Really?”

“Really. I want you to be in control, Diana. Total control.”

Diana scrunched her face in confusion and pulled out her wand, reluctantly muttered the words. Akko was for the third time locked totally in place. Instead of pain or fear, though, she felt a kind of giddy joy. She had no responsibilities now. All the anxiety of confession was in Diana’s hands and only Diana’s hands. 

“Well,” said Diana, “I’m not quite sure I am prepared to kiss your — your lips, just yet. It would be my first time, after all. So what if I start by…”  
She took a step toward Akko, and Akko wanted more than anything to push her mouth forward, just to get it over with, but — of course — she couldn’t.

“...start by kissing your cheek. Yes.” And she did. “Oh, this is quite fun! I like this feeling of _power._ ”

She lifted the hem of Akko’s skirt half an inch, smoothed a crinkle in her shirt. “Actually, no, I don’t think I will kiss you,” said Diana, and stepped back to the other side of the room and giggled. “Look at you _squirm!_ ”

“Please,” said Akko. _Pleessh._

“Your strangeness never ceases to amaze me, Akko. Only you would _want_ to be paralyzed.”

“I only want to be paralyzed by you!”

“Oh, flattery! That’s a good strategy.”

“J-just get it over with! You’re taking advantage of me.”

“Isn’t that what you wanted, Akko? I shall kiss you when I am good and ready.” And she came back close to Akko, a little closer than she would have come only a few hours ago. “I imagine that will be after I fix this tangled mess you have atop your head.” She pulled her sweet-smelling fingers through Akko’s unbrushed hair. Then she looked into Akko’s eyes, and Akko looked back. Then she kissed her.

The disadvantage of paralysis, as one might expect, was that she couldn’t kiss back. Her lips were cold and dead, and for a moment she felt guilty that Diana’s first kiss would be so underwhelming, but when she broke away and Akko saw the look on her face, she knew it hadn’t been. 

“That was,” said Diana, “yes, that was nice.”

“Yeah,” said Akko, “it wuzh.”

“Now, how long should I keep you like that?”


End file.
